Iran’s combat readiness essential to prevent new war: FM
The sole way to prevent the outbreak of a new war was to be prepared for it, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, months after Israel and the United States waged an aggression against the Islamic Republic in June that lasted 12 days.
“Currently, we are more prepared than the 12-day war and this is the only way to avert conflict… though we do not seek it,” Araghchi told a ceremony in the Lebanese capital Beirut where a new chapter of his book titled ‘Power of Negotiation’ in Arabic was unveiled, IRNA reported on Saturday.
Israel unleased a waved of airstrikes on Iran in the early hours of June 13, targeting military and civilian sites that lead to the killing of some 1,200 people including top miliary commanders.
Iran responded by launching hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones on Israeli military and energy infrastructure, killing dozens and causing severe damage.
The US joined the aggression by pounding three Iranian nuclear energy facilities in central Iran.
Araghchi said Iran learnt a lesson from the June conflict “that is the US and the Zionist regime [of Israel] only understand the language of force.”
“They should be talked to with this very language,” he said.
The US-Israeli war occurred as Tehran and Washington were in the midst of negotiations to break the standoff of over the Iranian nuclear program.
The top diplomat reiterated that Iran was ready to resume talks once “the US comes to the terms that negotiation is different from dictation.”
Five rounds of talks in 2025 bore no fruit due to what Iranian officials say a US “excessive demand” that wants Iran to permanently halt its uranium enrichment activity.
Tehran, as a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, says it is entitled to enrich uranium and no one can take away such a right from an NPT member.
“We tried to enter into talks with the US last year based on dignity but we attained no positive results,” Araghchi said.
The minister added that Iran never walked out of talks, blaming the US for the collapse of diplomacy, but noted that Iran would come back to the negotiating table only “based on its rights and mutual interests.”